ok, so I brought home my x530 logitech speakers for my powerbok, after the salesman assured me that they would work right out of the box.

so they dont, I gues si A) need to return them, or b) get an external sound card for my laptop (for my dorm room use). if anyone could direct me in the way of a decent sound card (usb) that would provide the speakers the nessasary power, it would be fantastic. otherwise I have to return them

My Logitech Z-640's came with a little box, you connect the black and the green into the box and then you can hook it up to an RCA style patch line. Which goes into the headphone jack of the laptop. It isn't surround, but it's stereo coming from all 5 speakers, including the center channel.

The soundcard is your best option, however, if you have the little box, this should do till then.

not sure, but does the soundblaster PCMCIA surround sound card work for macs? haven't really checked, but its worth looking at. other wise the m-audio box will work fine. unless you want surround sound, why not just plug your speakers into your headphone port on your powerbook?

not sure, but does the soundblaster PCMCIA surround sound card work for macs? haven't really checked, but its worth looking at. other wise the m-audio box will work fine. unless you want surround sound, why not just plug your speakers into your headphone port on your powerbook?

Oh god... the soundblaster... no it doesn't work on Macs with MacOS X. Creative never really supported Macs.. they tried with the soundblaster PCI card, but I think they gave up.

I'm using a Creative Soundblaster 24bit external USB sound card. Works great with my mac, it was automatically detected and everything, even though its not officially stated to work with OS X. I might be missing some advanced features, but at least it gives me 5.1 surround. It has optical out, SPDIF (RCA sort of I think) out, three jacks for centre, front and back (for your surround sound), mic in, headphone jack, and line in. Works great for me and is not horribly expensive (about 70$) all over USB 2.0.